Social Isolation and Group Size are Associated with Divergent Gene Expression in the Brain of Ant Queens

Abstract

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors would like to thank members of the Shoemaker’s Lab at the USDA-ARS in Gainesville for support during field experiments and sample collections: special thanks to Eileen Carroll who coordinated all activities associated with field experiments and arranged the shipment of samples to the UK. The authors would also like to thank all members of the Leadbeater Lab at Royal Holloway for providing feedback on an early draft of this manuscript, and the two anonymous reviewers who provided constructive criticism that helped improving the manuscript. This work was supported by a Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IIF-625487) to F.M. and M.J.F.B. which also supported F.M. salary for two years. The Natural Environment Research Council supported the salaries of C.M.R. (NE/L002485/1) and Y.W. (NE/L00626X/1). The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. Open access via Wiley agreementPeer reviewedPublisher PD